Spanish pharma sales down 3.1% in October

Data from Spain’s Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality shows that, in October 2011, public pharmaceutical expenditure experienced a new drop of 3.1% to 935.5 million euros ($1.22 billion) compared to the same month the previous year. This variation is a consequence of a reduction in the number of prescriptions (+2.2%), and of a fall in the average cost of prescriptions (-5.20% to 11.36 euros), reports the Spanish pharmaceutical trade group Farmaindustria.

Where annual expenditure evolution is concerned, October registered a drop of -8.2%. The annual expenditure evolution has also registered a steep reduction in growth rate over the 12- month period starting in June 2010; this was due to cost containment measures that came into force, namely Royal Decree Laws 4 and 8/2010.

It was a year ago in October that the year-on-year accumulated growth rate of public pharmaceutical expenditure began to register negative figures. Since then, the said rate has not gained an upturn to positive figures and it is not likely to do so in the short or medium term.